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Mission artists to be evicted from longtime art warehouse

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Back in the 1990s at the Engine Works building at Capp and 17th, B-boys danced, the Mission Burrito Project passed out food to the homeless, and members of the Mission School art movement hung out, including photographer David Schubert and artist Margaret Kilgallen, who painted a mural in the building (it’s since been removed). 

Fast forward two decades and the converted warehouse was still an arts scene: The beach goth band The Growlers performed secret concerts, punk rock bands recorded albums, and bike messengers idled between deliveries. 

Using the space now are an artist who paints sideshows and city life, a mechanical engineer who builds lighting contraptions with LEDs, and a DJ who creates digital art to be projected during performances.

But now that legacy is threatened. The artists who live at Engine Works were recently notified that they are being evicted under the Ellis Act, which allows property owners to exit the rental market and displace their tenants in the process. 

“This place has always been home to groups of alternative kids,” said Sean Newport, who has lived in the building since 2010 and currently uses studio space to make 3D geometric art out of painted wood. He recently painted “Artists Live Here” on the outside of the warehouse in large, black block letters. 

A building with a large mural reading "ARTISTS LIVE HERE" on its side. Three parked cars are visible in the foreground.
Artists Live Here is painted on the outside of the Engine Works building at 190 Capp St. in large, black block letters on August 13, 2024. Photo by Io Yeh Gilman.

Engine Works is located in an industrial pocket of the Mission, but inside the warm lighting and wooden walls give it a homey feel. Persian rugs cover worn floors and the walls are decorated with eclectic art (including several of Newport’s pieces). Flowers and plants lie on every surface, with some corrugated metal from the building’s skeleton poking through on the walls. For $5,000 a month, three people live there and two rent studio space, though several tenants have already left ahead of the eviction. 

Kent Putnam, a car dealership owner, bought the building in December 2023, and according to Newport, plans to turn the building into an ashram for hosting yoga retreats. Newport said that Ananta Chaitanya Das, a monk at the yoga studio Bhakti SF, walked through the space before it was bought and is already using the second floor — Newport says he can hear them chanting.

“We don’t need an ashram. We need more creative people living and thriving in San Francisco,” Newport said. He said he plans to get legal representation to fight the eviction and has nowhere else to go if he is kicked out. “I don’t want to be homeless,” he said. 

Putnam and Das did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 



Source: missionlocal.org

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